Silas e



EATENT F F ICEQ SILAS B. DIVINE, OF LOOH SHELDRAKE, NEW YORK, ASSIGNORTO THE BEND ROCK POWDER COMPANY, OF NEW JERSEY.

EXPLOSIVE COMPOUND.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 289,757, dated December4, 1883.

Application filed July To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that '1, SILAS R. DIVINE, of

-Loch Sheldrake, Sullivan county, State of New York, and a citizen ofthe United States,

have invented an Improvement in Explosive Compounds, of which thefollowing is a full, clear, and exact specification.

The object of my invention is to sensitize or impart increasedsusceptibility to explosion to an explosive compmuul for use, chiefly,in blasting, eom 'matd of chlorate of potash and nitro-benzole, so thatthe said compound may be readily exploded under various con- (lit-ionsof confinement, as in loose or rotten rock or shale, or in earth, or inthe open air.

My invention consists in an explosive com pound composed of chlorateofpotash andnitrobenzole substantially in the proportions of from aboutthree to four and one-sixth parts of the former to one part of thelatter, (as described by me in Letters Patent No. 243,432, dated J unc2S, 1581,) with the wet or moist mass of which said ingredients isunited sulphur in a finelypowdered state in the proportions hereinafterstated.

As is stated in said Letters Patent above referred to, eitherperchlorate or permanganate of potash may be employed in place ofchlorate of potash in the compound, and, in like manner, other liquidnitro compounds I maybe substituted for the -nitro-benzole, and

the theoretical proportions in which these said ingredients combine mosteifectively to form an explosive may bevaried somewhat and still .213,1853, (So specimens) an effective ekplosivebe constituted; and,furthermore, the chlorate of potash being in a crushed or powdered stateand used as the solid ingredient, and the nitro-benzole being used asthe liquid ingredient of the compound, these two ingredients maybereadily combined by simply allowing the said solid to absorb the liquid.

The proportion in which it is desirable to use the sulphur is from aboutone to three per cent. thereot -relativi'sly to the mass of the combinedtwo other ingredients named; but thesr proportions may be varied withoutdeparting from the essential feature of this invention. or moist mass ofthe combined chlorate of potash and nitro-benzole, and this may be accomplished by mixing the sulphur with said mass by hand in a suitablevessel! The danger of accidental. explosion attendant upon mixingsulphur with chlorate ofpot ash in a dry state is thus avoided.

'What I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent,is-

The explosive compound herein described, composed of chlorate of potashand nitro-benzole, substantially in the proportions named, with the wetor moist mass of which said combined ingredients is united sulphur insubstantially the relative proportions, and as and for the purpose setforth.

SILAS R. DIVINE.

\Vi tnesses A. G. N, VERMILYA, A. S. FITCH.

The sulphur is united with the Wet

